The panel will determine whether he gets a preliminary injunction that would probably allow him to play the rest of the season. If Elliott doesn’t get the injunction, his suspension would start immediately pending appeals.

If Elliott’s season continues, you can expect the Cowboys to keep giving him the ball every chance they get because he sets up every aspect of their offense.

You’d think Elliott would need a team of folks, including a chiropractor, a masseuse and, maybe, an acupuncturist to make sure his body can withstand the rigors of a 16-game NFL season.

“It’s not the carries that determines how sore I am after a game,” Elliott said. “It’s how physical the game is. I had more carries against Washington, but the holes were pretty big and I was getting into the line before I got hit.

“Against Kansas City, it was more physical. I’ll tell you, though, it’s the hits you don’t see that hurt more than the ones you do see.”

“There were not a lot of explosive runs in the game, but there were a lot of three, four, five and six yard gains that add up after awhile,” coach Jason Garrett said. “He really allows us to control the game and the line of scrimmage and over the course of the game wear them down.”

Smith, the NFL’s all-time leader in carries, had one stretch in his 15-year career with more carries. From Nov. 24 to Dec. 15 in 1991, Smith carried the ball 118 times in a four-game stretch at the end of the season, when the Cowboys were making a playoff push.

DeMarco Murray set the franchise record with 392 carries in 2014, when he also established a club record with 1,845 yards. He never had a four-game stretch with more than 111 carries.

“He wants the ball. Emotionally, he’s ready to handle the ball. Mentally, he’s ready to handle it. He loves the responsibility,” Garrett said of Elliott.

“The great ones want the ball. The great ones want to be on the mound in the ninth inning trying to get the out. In basketball, they want the ball in their hands for the last shot. It applies to our game as well. He thrives in those situations and gets better and better.

“He has a competitive instinct to him that the best players I’ve been around have. He just wants it and he’s physically sturdy enough to handle it and he gets better as the game goes on.”

In his career, Elliott has gained 764 yards and averaged 5.2 per carry in the first quarter, and he’s gained 639 yards and averaged 4.5 in the fourth quarter of games. He’s carried 250 times for 1,168 yards in the first half of games and 263 times for 1,246 yards in the second half.

In the fourth quarter when the Cowboys are ahead or behind by a touchdown, he’s carried 87 times for 428 yards and a 4.9 average per carry. And last year in December, he carried 79 times for 432 yards and a 5.5 average.